MicroImage, 2002

Following in the wake of Path Prints (2001), MicroImage Software is the second performative digital environment developed by Casey Reas. Exploring the phenomenon of emergence, this programme closely resembles an artificial ecosystem within which thousands of autonomous agents interact with one another. Resulting from simple behavioural rules encoded by the artist, phenomena of collective intelligence are closely connected to the minimal digital environment within which they take shape. Local changes in the environment thereby generate complex and evolutionary visual compositions that are characterised by an air of density and texture. The fineness and colour of the lines make it a unique work in the artist’s output. This computer programme has led to various iterations that illustrate the variety of effects that the same code can have. It has been given the shape of prints that are like artistic visualisations – whether in colour (MicroImage Prints, 2002) or in black and white (MicroImageBW, 2004) – of this continuous field of interaction. Tissue, an installation dating from 2002, also uses the same code to enable interaction with the public.